Recent reviews by Mißgunst

If you're interested in Mordhau there's little for me to tell you about it: You know this type of game, a first person (or not, if you prefer 3rd person) swordplay-focused war game. Contrary to Chivalry's more involved controller scheme, Mordhau's scheme is enjoyably simple and very difficult to master, as your camera defines the direction of your swings, and you can mix up with feints, thrusts, kicks or throws. If you really want to master it though, there's detailed information on every weapon about their turn caps, their damage by body part, how much it is reduced by armor categories and even how many miliseconds it takes to complete animations, then you can apply this knowledge in battle as you chamber, parry, feint straight into throws or thrusts whether you're swinging with wild abandon on the large scale matches or having a competitive and highly technical ranked duel.

A similar philosophy applies to creating your mercenary. Instead of locking your gear and perks behind classes and roles, you have a budget with the which you can put on whatever the hell you want and the most you're limited as far as I'm concerned is carrying just one fire bomb, just so not everyone has to use the fireproof perk. Make it all javelins for all I care, 3 longswords so you can throw 3 pommels at other people, bring both a bow and a greatsword at the risk of running around naked or meme around with a carving knife and a lute. Idk, the battlefield's your oyster. Alongside with some decent customisation to express your feudal drip, just make sure to turn off team colors on the settings and enable teammate markers for the best look.

The maps that you fight in are also part of the fun, as there's open fields and enclosed castle corridors for you to stomp through with your team, alongside traps, chasms, static ballistas, ladders and rocks to use against your enemies and they're mostly quite fun alongside their specific objectives. And the people that accompany you are a big part of why playing this is so much fun, as the vibe is set by the plentiful shouts and voice lines you can choose to call in battle among the clashing of steel, and all sorts of (mostly) amicable critters are on both sides: crusader-obsessed weirdos that only run kite shields with white and red, medieval character cosplayers, bards playing lute covers, chronically online goobers that throw jokes in chat or have the silliest looking merc on the field... And the brief moments of kinship you have with them on the field, whether it means branching off to have a duel, sharing a conversation purely on default voice lines or toying around, are as much part of the delight as the gameplay is. I'm not fully in touch with the community to know if there's a cyst of toxicity I haven't seen, but at least during the match it is all laughs and games.

Even if the PvP isn't for you, there's horde mode for you to survive against waves of angry peasants and knights, managing your money and increasing your skills. I think it doesn't have as much room for wonder as the player battles, I don't think I've seen a pack of bards beating up the biggest fish in there, but it's another option to have fun.

Either way, Mordhau is what for a long time I've thought is a quintessential multiplayer experience that's detached from the corporate, cynical, stat driven approach to matchmaking where you can genuinely pick how you want to have fun at any moment, and most people won't care at the end of the match because defeat hardly feels like one at all when you're having this much fun.

Sans banged my mom 0/10
(Absolute cinema)

Hors

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

Not only are Mouthwashing's surreal sequences extremely effective at many types of horror, but its short story also demonstrates that games can masterfully handle politics by naturally, and more often than not, being a hands-on experience; When it is thoughtful, solid and willing to tackle serious topics without padding.
A great, disturbing tale about power and abuse, both interpersonal and corporative.

Personal GOTY of 2024.
Nine Sols' gameplay is without a doubt extremely polished, fun and manages an equilibrium of delivering an intended experience while still offering many choices of playstyle. It seldom offers something tremendously innovative, but what it does achieve is honor its clear inspirations: Its interconnected, metroidvania-like world hides many collectibles and optional upgrades that reward exploration but are hardly mandatory (Although, the rewards are not only gameplay related too, you'll be glad to find!); Its combat encourages learning your enemies until you achieve a state of flow that aligns with Yi's Tai-chi, likely inspired by other asian themed action adventures like Ninja Gaiden or Sekiro. While it's obvious that this is what Nine Sols is most known for, I firmly believe people don't pay enough attention to its art below the surface and its story.

Eastern themes lean towards slightly uncommon in the scene already, and RedCandle's "Taopunk" is something I'd dare to call completely unseen, ever, and it's more than an aesthetic for the game to feast your eyes, but a congregation of themes that offer a critique to transhumanism and the regression of values from unchecked development, like many Cyberpunk stories do. Both its art and narrative present a perspective that, while based on eastern mythology and thus is presented through the lens of Taoism, may resonate even with people who consider themselves plenty secular, as instead of preaching thoughts of divinity Nine Sols instead presents the idea that, just maybe, pure stoicism and adjacent currents that find disdain in emotions may well be a blockade to their own goal of a well-lived life.

Alongside your upgrades, collectibles can be handed over to Shuanshuan and your other companions for dialogue, and this game is not afraid to give you a full conversation to explore further caracterization or tell you more about Solarian history. It may not be of everyone's taste, but I'd recommend playing close attention at least a couple times, as the writing is not only genunely good but you may find that talking with your allies is genuinely endearing, and talking to your opponents oten evokes some emotion. Similarly, Yi is not a vessel for the player or a figure whose story is completely dropped upon you in the first hour, but instead a character that you'll actively learn about through his conversations. Completely extracting what every Sol and what notable characters represent both on their own and in relation to one another would ruin a bit of the magic though, and while some of the overall story is flawed no doubt, it decides to play to its thematic strengths over diluting itself with putting bandaids on the few and small discrepancies.

Whether you want to get it just for the gameplay or some of the insight I've given on story interest you, you will likely not forget it.

Pretty mediocre DLC.
What could've been a fun bit with the moderately interesting premise of "Someone is trying to clone Handsome Jack" is a very short campaign with side quests that boil down to killing a type of monster, the which all ends with a terrible boss that, worse than heavily handicapping you for you not using a slim set of tools (*cough cough* Slag *cough cough*), is borderline undoable without and feels like it ignores the existence of one character and at least 1/3rd of the set of many others.
The Fall of Nakayama is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hilarious, don't get me wrong, but a 20 seconds bit and a chuckle is all it's got going.

Very varied new locations, great bosses and enemy variety and the cults all offer gear that is interesting at the very least and you can grind them out all at the same time! The tomb of the Heretic is also easily one of the coolest looking dungeons in the game. Fantastic ♥♥♥♥

It was cool

It was funny as ♥♥♥♥
10/10

Open apology letter to the Undertale fanbase:
After playing Undertale I can understand the weapons-grade autism that's so widespread and known. It is evident to me know why you want to marry each and every last character that I happened upon in the game, and why I couldn't bear to stay in the genocide route, and then when coming back for pacifist, realized I ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up